World Championships – Champery, Switzerland


The World Championships in Champery were always going to be an interesting one as the downhill and cross country courses are some of the most technical of the whole race circuit and in previous years the weather has always played a big part in the event ! This year was to be no exception !

This year at the world championships I was going to be taking part not only in the downhill but also in the XC team relay ! I have really enjoyed my exploits into xc racing this year and the added fitness that it has brought to my downhill has been noticeable too. The Champery xc course is one of the most technical tracks I had seen and I was chosen to ride just one lap of the track alongside 3 other GB team mates in the Team Relay event. It sounds easy just to do 1 lap of around 15 mins but I soon found out that it was far from easy ! A maximal effort in a stage such as the world champs where the adrenaline is flowing created an effort that I never recovered from right from the start ! I went so hard that I never managed to regain my composure and suffered for the 17mins it took me to complete my one lap ! I gave it my best shot, but just never expected it to hurt so much for the entire duration. However my efforts helped the GB team to a 9th place finish which was a good points scoring result for them. For me it was an unpleasant experience but one that I really felt helped unite the XC and DH communities as so many downhill riders came out to watch me suffer !!

With the relay done it was back to the downhill track and although I had missed a few practice sessions it didn’t matter as the lovely dry weather we had up till Thurs was gone and my first practice run on Thursday morning was a little greasy to say the least !! It soon dried up and for Friday and Saturday’s session it was dry and fast and actually pretty good fun to ride. I had been keeping an eye on the weather forecast and right from the start of the week they had forecast for Sunday to be a wash out with 11 hours of rain forecast ! Sunday morning came and still no rain, the track was a little wet but I rode dry tyres in my last practice run and was ready for a drying out track. However around 3hrs before my start it started to rain and that was it, it didn’t stop not even when we left the following day, it was still raining !!

That rained transformed the track so much, and I made a big mistake of not realising just how much it would affect the track. I knew how bad it had been in 2010 for the world cup, but I just didn’t think it would be that bad. I really didn’t think it had rained enough. I decided to race on cut spike tyres and to stick with my normal clip in pedals. Both decisions I now regret as I really needed full spike tyres and I should have ridden on flat pedals. I had even practiced on flat pedals so I could ride them if I felt it would be that bad. However I made the decision and only 45 secs into the track I had my first crash, just not being able to slow down and make the corner I ended up in the crash net and sliding down on my bottom. Once you have been off and covered you gloves in mud it’s inevitable it will happen again and I ended up crashing 4 times before finally crossing the finishing line into 9th place.

It was a really sad way to see my rainbow jersey go, but in conditions like this I was just thankful I had survived my crashes and not ended the season in a helicopter ride off the mountain. It was always going to be a unique race in these conditions and I have to take away the fact that I have just completed the most successful year of my career and taking home the World Cup Series with 4 wins is a great satisfaction for me.